The present invention relates to a photographic printer which has a film container for an original transparency or negative film strip disposed in association with a film carrier.
In recent years, mini-laboratory type printing apparatus has been widely used for producing photo prints on a small scale. The mini-laboratory type printing apparatus generally comprises a printer, a pare processor and a cutter, in which a complete printing operation can be carried out from printing to cutting. Specifically, each frame of an original transparency or negative film strip held in a negative carrier is projected onto a photographic paper to form its latent image thereon. The photographic paper thus provided with a series of latent images is advanced into the paper processor to be developed in a conventional way, and then cut frame by frame to provide completed photo prints.
In such mini-laboratory type printing apparatus, usually a full length of negative film strip is placed on a film carrier and advanced one frame each print by the operator. Part of the negative film strip after printing emerges from the film carrier and slides along a printing table on which the film carrier is supported, and hangs down from the printing table. The hanging part of the film is apt to be scratched on its surface and is unsightly. If a turntable is used to run the film carrier supported thereon through a right angle in order to vary the masking size of the film carrier according to the frame size of the negative, e.g., full size or half size, there is another problem in that part of the negative film strip, when printing, say, half size, will move toward and be deflected by the housing of the printer, thus getting tangled.